A Silent film based upon the Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, this Silent Gem was directed by Roland West in 1926, later being Remade as the Bat Whispers in 1930 (by Roland West) and again in 1958 in the Bat starring Vincent Price, also available at the Archive. Oh, and when I say silent, I mean silent - this was transferred from a 16mm print and was probably meant to be played with live musical accompaniment.

SYNOPSIS: The Bat, a masked criminal, terrorises a mansion filled with the guests of a mystery writer, a mansion in which a robber has hidden $20,000 of Stolen money.
The House guests along with a detective search for Clues - them being the location of the money and the identity of the Bat.

N.B - As many Batfans will know, this film is where Bob Kane got the Inspiration for the comic book superhero "Batman" - if you look, you'll notice the Bat-signal, here used to frighten the guests before the Bat attacks.


Sound: Silent - No Music, No Vocal Track - Live Accompaniment preffered
Colour: B&W
Genre: Horror/Mystery
Release Date: 1926
Director: Roland West


This movie is part of the collection: Silent Films

Producer: Roland West
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: The Bat; 1926; Silent Film; Horror; Mystery; Batman; Batsignal Roland West; Robber; Masked; Criminal; Vigilante;

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: gl1200phil - - October 30, 2010
Subject: Fast paced fun little flick!
Might be the second best, after "Nosferatu", silent movie that I have seen. I found it very entertaining and have watched it a couple of times, something I rarely do! Moves along quite nicely. A lot of the feature length silent movies are paced rather slow, as some might say of "Nosferatu", in comparison with the later "talkies". Seems as movies get more and more recent, the faster moving they have become. Short attention spans?? For a lot of the old silent movies, one must appreciate the genre and the slower pace, at least for the non-comedy type. However, most of the comedy silents were one or two reelers-generally a little over 20 minutes or less. "The Bat", is really quickly paced, has some "scary" (or maybe apprehensive?) scenes and some great funny scenes also. When the Bat is in the house, the antics of the frightened maid are really funny. The writers were very clever in the way the situations were set up. Many of the really old movies had something that seems to elude some genres today... A PLOT! If you enjoy silent movies give "The Bat" a try!

My five star rating is in comparison to other silent movies, not in comparison to all motion pictures ever produced.